The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1887-11-17
LAND ACQUISITIONS.
Sons OF the Most Gratifying Products OF
Democratic Policy.

INtS ASSOlSi tONos
Sons OF the Most Gratifying Products OF
Democratic Policy.
The United States originally COM
prlsed the old thirteen colonies east of
the Alleghenies which fought the revo-
lutiouary war and afterwards became
the thirteen original States. When
the treaty of peace was made ut Paris
IN 1883 it was an interesting question
what should be the Western. or rather
the Northwestern boundary, the British
commissioners proposing to draw line
from Lake Erie to. a point somewhere
on the Upper Ohio river This would
have reserved to the mother country
all the magnificent Northwest Terri
tory, as it was called, which the old
colony of Virginia had partially con-
quered from the Indians and then
claimed as part of its domain. The
American commissioners insisted on
the surrender of it to the United
States. and two of them, Franklin and
Jay, declared if it was not conceded
they would return home and leave
matters where they stood at the battle
of Yorktown. The British commits
sioners yielded at last; they could not
foresee the future value and impOr-
tance of wilderness occupied at the
time by hostile Indians, and. in sur
rendering their claim to it, they
had little conception of what they
were doing. The country, as de-
fined by this treaty, comprised
all the domain south of the St.
Lawrence river and lakes on the north
and east of the Mississippi. with the
exception of that part of the present
State of Louisiana east of the river, and
the Territory of Florida-an area of
S27, 500 square miles. This was the be-
ginning. The domain was a mag
nificent one and the statesmen of that
day thought-if they ever took the
trouble to think about the matter at
all-that it was enough for all time.
But they could not grasp the tremen-
dOus future that was about to press
upon them Twenty years later, and
while some of the American commits
sioners who had negotiated the treaty
of Paris were still living. President
Jefferson, by stroke of craftsmanship
which, IN the language of James G.
Blaine, deserves to be cOmmemOrated
by a statue to the Father of Democracy
in st. Louis, bought the Louisiana
territory from France, paying S15, ,OOO,-
600 for it. In telling the Louisiana
territory Napoleon had better idea of
what he was doing than the British
commissioners had when they gave up
the Northwest territory in 1888, but
even Napoleon only dimly discerned
what the wilderness he was parting
with would grow into. 1t included the
vast domain lying west of the Missis-
sippi and north of Texas, Mexico and
California, and extending to British
America, now embracing the States of
Arkansas, Colorado, Missouri, Louis
lana, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Mime
sofa and Oregon, the Indian Nation,
and the Territories of Dakota, Idaho,
Montana, Wyoming and Washington
the whole having an area of LIB
900 square mileS-nearly a third
greater than the original domain of the
country.
The next acquisition of territory was
that of Florida, bought from Spain at
a cost of S5.O00,OOO by the Monroe
Administration, in 1921. By this pur-
chase we gained 10000 square miles
of new territory. and secured a cOntin-
uOus line of seacoast from Maine to
the Sabine river.
Texas was annexed in 1915, under
the Polk Administration, giving us an
additional 100000 square miles. Out
of this annexation grew the Mexican
war, under the same Administration,
in 1S47, which ended in the conquest OF
the territory now embraced in part of
Arizona, California, Colorado, New
Nevada, Utah, and small parts
of Kansas and Wyoming. and having
an area of CSC, 900 square miles.
Under the Administration of Mr..
Pierce, in 1858, we negotiated the
"Gadsden purchase, as it was called,
by which we acquired an additional
45. 800 square miles, now included in
Arizona.
The next and last acquisition was
that of Alaska, under the Andrew
Johnson Administration, in 1868 This
added a territory of $4,000 square
miles area to the country, and extended
its northern limit up within the Arctic
circle We paid for it 81, 100000. An
examination of the map will show that
Alaska is the only part of the
public domain separated from
the body of the country. A part
Of British America lies between the
two. This awkward arrangement
grows out of the Oregon boundary
treaty of 1916. The British and our
selves both claimed the whole of Ore
gon Territory; we up to latitude $40,
and the dispute waxed so warm and war.
ike that '.Fifty-four Forty or Fight"
became an alliterative war
Try; but treaty was finally made at
by which the British
backed up and we backed down to the
.orty-ninth parallel, which has ever
since constituted the boundary.
1t will be observed that this success
lion of acquisitions by which, in the |
orief period of sixty-five years, the or
ginal domain of the country was ex-
banded from S27, 800 to $500. 900 square
niles, or more than quadrupled, was